Wisdom must be written on the heart before temptation speaks, because seduction flatters, deceives, and leads the unguarded soul down the path of death.
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Proverbs 7
The Path to Slaughter: Wisdom's Warning Against Seduction and the Collapse of Judgment
Wisdom must be written on the heart before temptation speaks, because seduction flatters, deceives, and leads the unguarded soul down the path of death.
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Chapter Summary
Wisdom must be written on the heart before temptation speaks, because seduction flatters, deceives, and leads the unguarded soul down the path of death.
Overview
Proverbs 7 argues that sexual folly advances through unguarded desire, dangerous proximity, calculated seduction, and the collapse of judgment. The father does not merely condemn adultery after the fact; He traces the path into it. The young man lacks judgment before He meets the woman, walks near her corner before He falls into her house, and enters the darkness before He recognizes the cost.
The adulterous woman uses boldness, touch, flattery, religious language, sensory pleasure, secrecy, and opportunity to make death look like delight. The chapter's theological burden is that wisdom must govern the heart before temptation reaches the senses. Without internalized instruction, the simple become prey.
Chapter Movement
The chapter moves from internalized wisdom, to observed naivety, to the seducer's calculated strategy, to the young man's collapse, to a final warning that her house leads to death.
Structural Flow
The chapter opens with an urgent call to keep the father's words, store up His commands, and guard His teaching as the apple of the eye. Wisdom must be bound on the fingers and written on the tablet of the heart. The son is told to call wisdom His sister and insight His intimate friend so that He will be protected from the adulterous woman and her seductive words.
The father looks through the lattice and sees among the simple a young man lacking judgment. He passes along the street near the adulterous woman's corner and walks in the direction of her house at twilight, as day fades into night. The setting signals moral vulnerability, proximity to danger, and movement toward darkness.
The woman comes out to meet Him dressed as a prostitute and with crafty intent. She is loud, defiant, restless, and positioned in the streets, squares, and corners. Her conduct is not accidental but predatory and strategic.
She seizes the young man, kisses Him, and speaks with brazen confidence. She invokes fellowship offerings, suggesting religious respectability or celebratory abundance. She flatters Him as the one she came to find, describes her prepared bed with linens, perfume, myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon, and promises love until morning. She removes fear of discovery by saying her husband is away on a long journey with money in hand.
With persuasive words and smooth speech, she leads Him astray. He follows at once like an ox going to slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose, and like a bird darting into a snare, not knowing it will cost Him His life. The images expose the young man's blindness, passivity, and deadly vulnerability.
The father turns from narrative to direct exhortation. The sons must listen and pay attention. Their hearts must not turn to her ways or stray into her paths. She has brought down many victims, and her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.
Chapter Outline
- 7:1-5: The chapter opens with an urgent call to keep the father's words, store up His commands, and guard His teaching as the apple of the eye. Wisdom must be bound on the fingers and written on the tablet of the heart. The son is told to call wisdom His sister and insight His intimate friend so that He will be protected from the adulterous woman and her seductive words.
- 7:6-9: The father looks through the lattice and sees among the simple a young man lacking judgment. He passes along the street near the adulterous woman's corner and walks in the direction of her house at twilight, as day fades into night. The setting signals moral vulnerability, proximity to danger, and movement toward darkness.
- 7:10-12: The woman comes out to meet Him dressed as a prostitute and with crafty intent. She is loud, defiant, restless, and positioned in the streets, squares, and corners. Her conduct is not accidental but predatory and strategic.
- 7:13-20: She seizes the young man, kisses Him, and speaks with brazen confidence. She invokes fellowship offerings, suggesting religious respectability or celebratory abundance. She flatters Him as the one she came to find, describes her prepared bed with linens, perfume, myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon, and promises love until morning. She removes fear of discovery by saying her husband is away on a long journey with money in hand.
- 7:21-23: With persuasive words and smooth speech, she leads Him astray. He follows at once like an ox going to slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose, and like a bird darting into a snare, not knowing it will cost Him His life. The images expose the young man's blindness, passivity, and deadly vulnerability.
- 7:24-27: The father turns from narrative to direct exhortation. The sons must listen and pay attention. Their hearts must not turn to her ways or stray into her paths. She has brought down many victims, and her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.
Theological Argument
Proverbs 7 argues that sexual folly advances through unguarded desire, dangerous proximity, calculated seduction, and the collapse of judgment. The father does not merely condemn adultery after the fact; He traces the path into it. The young man lacks judgment before He meets the woman, walks near her corner before He falls into her house, and enters the darkness before He recognizes the cost.
The adulterous woman uses boldness, touch, flattery, religious language, sensory pleasure, secrecy, and opportunity to make death look like delight. The chapter's theological burden is that wisdom must govern the heart before temptation reaches the senses. Without internalized instruction, the simple become prey.
The chapter moves from internalized wisdom, to observed naivety, to the seducer's calculated strategy, to the young man's collapse, to a final warning that her house leads to death.
Theological Focus
- Internalized Wisdom
- The Naivety of the Unguarded Heart
- The Strategy of Seduction
- Sexual Sin as Deathward Folly
- The Heart and the Path
- Biblical Wisdom
- The Heart
- Sexual Holiness
- Temptation
- Sin and Deception
- Sanctification
- The Two Ways
Theological Themes
Wisdom must be kept close, guarded like the apple of the eye, bound to the life, and written on the heart. External exposure to instruction is not enough.
The young man lacks judgment before the seduction succeeds. His danger begins in unformed discernment and careless nearness to temptation.
The adulterous woman uses calculated speech, bodily boldness, religious cover, sensory appeal, flattery, and assurances of secrecy.
The chapter strips adultery of glamour. What appears intimate is actually slaughter, snare, and descent to death.
The father's final warning begins with the heart: do not let the heart turn to her ways. The path of the feet follows the turning of the heart.
Covenant Significance
Proverbs 7 presents sexual temptation as covenantal danger. The adulterous woman violates marriage, misuses religious language, and weaponizes desire against wisdom. The father calls the son to internalize instruction because covenant faithfulness requires more than public compliance; it requires a guarded heart. The chapter also serves the covenant community by exposing how sin recruits and destroys.
Wisdom instruction protects not merely individual reputation but household stability, marital fidelity, communal holiness, and life under the Lord's moral order.
Old Testament Connections
- The command to write wisdom on the heart echoes covenant instruction that must be internalized and remembered.
- The warning against adultery reflects the commandment against adultery and the sanctity of marriage.
- The imagery of the path to death resonates with the covenant choice between life and death.
- The misuse of religious language around fellowship offerings exposes the danger of external ritual being detached from moral faithfulness.
Canonical Connections
Wisdom must be written on the heart before temptation speaks, because seduction flatters, deceives, and leads the unguarded soul down the path of death.
Gospel Clarity
Proverbs 7 exposes the deadly movement of temptation and the weakness of the unguarded heart. It shows that sinners need more than information, because the young man has access to instruction but lacks judgment and heart-deep wisdom. The gospel announces that Christ is the faithful Son who never turned aside into folly, never surrendered to seductive lies, and never walked the path of darkness.
At the cross, He bore judgment for adulterers, idolaters, the sexually immoral, and all whose hearts have strayed from God. In His resurrection, He opens the path of life. By the Spirit, He writes God's truth upon the heart, renews desire, and empowers believers to flee sin and walk in holiness. Proverbs 7 therefore warns without apology and points to the grace that alone can rescue and reform the heart.
Gospel Guardrails
- Do not preach the chapter as if fear of consequences alone can produce holiness.
- Do not minimize the chapter's severe warning about sexual folly and death.
- Do not treat the unguarded heart as fixable by self-effort apart from grace.
- Do not use the chapter to deny gospel mercy to repentant sexual sinners.
- Do not bypass practical obedience · grace trains believers to flee paths that lead to death.
- Do not blame only the seducer while ignoring the young man's lack of judgment and dangerous movement toward sin.
Primary Emphasis
Proverbs 7 contributes to Christ-centered reading by showing the deadly vulnerability of the unguarded human heart and the need for wisdom deeper than self-control. Christ is the faithful Son whose heart was perfectly aligned with the Father, who resisted every temptation, refused every deceitful shortcut, and walked the path of life without turning aside. He is also the Savior who rescues sinners who have been led astray by smooth words and enslaving desires.
Through His death and resurrection, He breaks the power of sin and gives the Spirit, who writes God's instruction on the heart and forms holy affections.
Chapter Contribution
Proverbs 7 argues that sexual folly advances through unguarded desire, dangerous proximity, calculated seduction, and the collapse of judgment. The father does not merely condemn adultery after the fact; He traces the path into it. The young man lacks judgment before He meets the woman, walks near her corner before He falls into her house, and enters the darkness before He recognizes the cost.
The adulterous woman uses boldness, touch, flattery, religious language, sensory pleasure, secrecy, and opportunity to make death look like delight. The chapter's theological burden is that wisdom must govern the heart before temptation reaches the senses. Without internalized instruction, the simple become prey.
Canonical Trajectory
- The command to write wisdom on the heart anticipates the new covenant promise of God's law written within His people.
- The young man lacking judgment exposes humanity's need for Christ, the truly wise and faithful Son.
- The seduction narrative anticipates the New Testament call to flee sexual immorality rather than negotiate with it.
- The descent to death reveals the need for Christ, who enters death and rises to bring His people into life.
- Christ's purity and faithful love provide the positive fulfillment of covenant faithfulness.
Doctrines in This Chapter
The heart is the center of moral decision-making and must be shaped by God's wisdom.
Sin ultimately leads to destruction and death when it is pursued rather than resisted.
God's commands provide life-giving guidance and must be treasured and obeyed.
Human beings are vulnerable to temptation and capable of destructive moral choices when wisdom is ignored.
Individuals must exercise discernment and avoid circumstances that invite temptation.
The gospel provides deliverance from the path of sin and the power to walk in righteousness.
Believers grow in holiness through wisdom that guards their hearts and directs their lives.
God's wisdom protects believers from destructive sexual temptation.
Doctrinal Weight
Wisdom must be kept, stored, bound, and written on the heart to guard the learner from destructive paths.
The heart is the decisive place where wisdom must be written and where sinful turning must be resisted.
Sexual faithfulness requires avoiding seduction, lust, secrecy, and adulterous paths.
Temptation uses proximity, timing, flattery, sensory appeal, religious cover, secrecy, and smooth speech.
Sin promises pleasure and secrecy but leads to slaughter, snare, and death.
The wise life requires heart-deep formation, disciplined avoidance, and Spirit-enabled moral vigilance.
The adulterous path is a highway to the grave, while wisdom keeps the learner on the path of life.
Commentary (Keil & Delitzsch)
C.F. Keil & F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–91) — public domain
Formation Focus
The heart must be guarded by internalized wisdom because seduction is strategic, sin is deceptive, and the path of adultery leads to death.
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Heart-written wisdom, sober self-awareness, moral vigilance, sexual purity, discernment of seductive speech, hatred of secrecy, and decisive avoidance.
Practice Response
- Identify one recurring place or pattern that functions as a corner of temptation and take a concrete step away from it.
- Memorize Proverbs 7:2-3 or Proverbs 7:25 as a heart-level guardrail.
- Write down the sequence by which temptation usually progresses in Your own life.
- Confess one hidden vulnerability to a trusted mature believer before it becomes open ruin.
- Remove one source of flattery, secrecy, or sensory temptation that has weakened discernment.
- Pray for the Spirit to make wisdom not merely known but loved and written on the heart.
Memorable Contrasts
- Wisdom written on the heart versus desire written into the path.
- The apple of the eye versus the captivation of sinful beauty.
- A sister named Wisdom versus a stranger who seduces.
- The simple young man versus the guarded son.
- Smooth words versus slaughter.
- Prepared bed versus hidden grave.
- Secret pleasure versus public death.
- A heart that turns versus feet that stray.
Warnings and Misreadings
- Proverbs 7 warns that sexual ruin rarely begins at the final act. It begins when wisdom is not internalized, when the simple wander near danger, when darkness is tolerated, when flattery is welcomed, and when secrecy seems possible. The chapter warns against overestimating one's strength and underestimating sin's strategy. The unguarded person does not merely make a mistake · He becomes prey.
- Do not face temptation with unwritten wisdom.
- Do not walk near the corner of known temptation.
- Do not confuse religious language with righteousness.
- Do not underestimate flattery and sensory appeal.
- Do not believe secrecy makes sin safe.
- Do not let the heart turn before the feet move.
- Treating Proverbs 7 as merely a warning against a dangerous woman. - The chapter warns against adultery and seductive sin, but it also exposes the young man's lack of judgment, dangerous proximity, unguarded heart, and moral passivity.
- Assuming the young man falls suddenly without prior movement toward danger. - The narrative carefully shows His path: He is among the simple, lacks judgment, passes near her corner, and goes toward her house at night.
- Reading the woman's religious language as evidence of sincere piety. - Her reference to fellowship offerings appears as part of the seduction, showing how religious language can be used to cloak sin.
- Reducing the chapter to sexual rule-keeping without heart formation. - The chapter begins and ends with the heart. Wisdom must be written on the heart, and the heart must not turn toward sinful paths.
- Using the chapter to crush repentant sexual sinners without gospel hope. - The warnings must remain severe, but canonically the gospel offers cleansing, rescue, renewal, and Spirit-enabled holiness for repentant sinners.
- Assuming this chapter speaks only to men. - The father-son setting is pedagogical and directly addresses a young man, but the wisdom applies to all who must resist seduction, guard the heart, and avoid sexual folly.
Discipleship Questions
- Is wisdom merely near me externally, or has it been written on my heart?
- Where do I lack judgment and need to admit vulnerability rather than pretend strength?
- What corners, streets, screens, relationships, or routines place me near temptation before I have openly sinned?
- What forms of flattery or attention most easily weaken my discernment?
- Have I ever used religious language, ministry activity, or spiritual appearance to mask unholy desire?
- Where am I believing the lie that secrecy makes sin safe?
- What would it look like to refuse the path before I reach the door?
- How does this chapter call me to flee, not negotiate, with sexual temptation?
- Where do I need Christ not only to forgive me but to retrain my desires?
Pastoral Applications
- Preach Proverbs 7 narratively and diagnostically. Show the progression of temptation rather than only the final act of sin.
- Use the chapter to teach believers to identify their corners: the places, devices, emotional patterns, private messages, memories, and relational situations where temptation is already waiting.
- Help young people see that lacking judgment is dangerous before visible rebellion begins. The chapter trains moral imagination by showing where the path goes.
- Use the narrative sequence to help counselees trace their own sin patterns: unguarded heart, proximity, timing, flattery, secrecy, rationalization, action, and consequence.
- Teach that covenant faithfulness requires guarded boundaries, honest communication, and refusal of emotional or sexual secrecy.
- Create a culture where sexual temptation can be confessed early, before the person reaches the house of ruin.
- Frame memorization, prayer, accountability, and Scripture meditation as ways of writing wisdom on the heart, not as mere religious tasks.
Pastoral Trajectories
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Believers must be trained to recognize the early path into sin and flee before desire, secrecy, and opportunity converge.
Motifs in This Chapter
The Biblical World
Chapter At A Glance
The chapter moves from internalized wisdom, to observed naivety, to the seducer's calculated strategy, to the young man's collapse, to a final warning that her house leads to death.
Proverbs 7 presents sexual temptation as covenantal danger. The adulterous woman violates marriage, misuses religious language, and weaponizes desire against wisdom. The father calls the son to internalize instruction because covenant faithfulness requires more than public compliance; it requires a guarded heart. The chapter also serves the covenant community by exposing how sin recruits and destroys.
Wisdom instruction protects not merely individual reputation but household stability, marital fidelity, communal holiness, and life under the Lord's moral order.
Proverbs 7 exposes the deadly movement of temptation and the weakness of the unguarded heart. It shows that sinners need more than information, because the young man has access to instruction but lacks judgment and heart-deep wisdom. The gospel announces that Christ is the faithful Son who never turned aside into folly, never surrendered to seductive lies, and never walked the path of darkness.
At the cross, He bore judgment for adulterers, idolaters, the sexually immoral, and all whose hearts have strayed from God. In His resurrection, He opens the path of life. By the Spirit, He writes God's truth upon the heart, renews desire, and empowers believers to flee sin and walk in holiness. Proverbs 7 therefore warns without apology and points to the grace that alone can rescue and reform the heart.
Heart-written wisdom, sober self-awareness, moral vigilance, sexual purity, discernment of seductive speech, hatred of secrecy, and decisive avoidance.
Focus Points
- Internalized Wisdom
- The Naivety of the Unguarded Heart
- The Strategy of Seduction
- Sexual Sin as Deathward Folly
- The Heart and the Path
- Biblical Wisdom
- The Heart
- Sexual Holiness
- Temptation
- Sin and Deception
- Sanctification
- The Two Ways
Passages
Chapter opening: Proverbs 7:1-5
Pro 7:6-7 How necessary it is for the youth to guard himself by the help of wisdom against the enticements of the wanton woman, the author now shows by a reference to his own observation. 6 For through the window of my house, From behind the lattice I looked out; 7 Then saw I among the simple ones, Discerned among the young people, a youth devoid of understanding.
כּי refers indeed to the immediately following clause, yet it actually opens up the whole following exemplification. The connection with Pro 7:5 would be closer if instead of the extended Semitic construction it were said: nam quum ... prospicerem vidi , etc. חלּון (from חלל, to bore through) is properly a place where the wall is bored through. אשׁנב . hguor (from שׁנב = Arab.
shaniba, to be agreeable, cool, fresh) is the window-lattice or lattice-window, i. e. , lattice for drawing down and raising up, which keeps off the rays of the sun. נשׁקף signifies primarily to make oneself long in order to see, to stretch up or out the neck and the head, καραδοκεῖν, Arab. atall, atal'a, and tatall'a of things, imminere , to overtop, to project, to jut in; cf.
Arab. askaf of the ostrich, long and bent, with respect to the neck stretching it up, sakaf, abstr . crooked length. And בּעד is thus used, as in Arab. duna, but not b'ad, is used: so placed, that one in relation to the other obstructs the avenue to another person or thing: “I looked forth from behind the lattice-window, i. e. , with respect to the persons or things in the room, standing before the lattice-window, and thus looking out into the open air” (Fleischer).
That it was far in the night, as we learn at Pro 7:9, does not contradict this looking out; for apart from the moon, and especially the lighting of the streets, there were star-lit nights, and to see what the narrator saw there was no night of Egyptian darkness. But because it was night 6a is not to be translated: I looked about among those devoid of experience (thus e.
g. , Löwenstein); but he saw among these, observed among the youths, who thus late amused themselves without, a young man whose want of understanding was manifest from what further happened. Bertheau: that I might see, is syntactically impossible. The meaning of וארא is not determined by the אבינה following, but conversely אבינה stands under the operation of ו (= אבינה, Neh 13:7), characterizing the historic aorist.
Regarding פּתי, vid . , at Pro 1:4. בּנים is the masc. of בּנות, Arab. benât in the meaning maiden. בבּנים has in correct texts, according to the rules of the accents, the ב raphatum .
Pro 7:6-7 How necessary it is for the youth to guard himself by the help of wisdom against the enticements of the wanton woman, the author now shows by a reference to his own observation. 6 For through the window of my house, From behind the lattice I looked out; 7 Then saw I among the simple ones, Discerned among the young people, a youth devoid of understanding.
כּי refers indeed to the immediately following clause, yet it actually opens up the whole following exemplification. The connection with Pro 7:5 would be closer if instead of the extended Semitic construction it were said: nam quum ... prospicerem vidi , etc. חלּון (from חלל, to bore through) is properly a place where the wall is bored through. אשׁנב . hguor (from שׁנב = Arab.
shaniba, to be agreeable, cool, fresh) is the window-lattice or lattice-window, i. e. , lattice for drawing down and raising up, which keeps off the rays of the sun. נשׁקף signifies primarily to make oneself long in order to see, to stretch up or out the neck and the head, καραδοκεῖν, Arab. atall, atal'a, and tatall'a of things, imminere , to overtop, to project, to jut in; cf.
Arab. askaf of the ostrich, long and bent, with respect to the neck stretching it up, sakaf, abstr . crooked length. And בּעד is thus used, as in Arab. duna, but not b'ad, is used: so placed, that one in relation to the other obstructs the avenue to another person or thing: “I looked forth from behind the lattice-window, i. e. , with respect to the persons or things in the room, standing before the lattice-window, and thus looking out into the open air” (Fleischer).
That it was far in the night, as we learn at Pro 7:9, does not contradict this looking out; for apart from the moon, and especially the lighting of the streets, there were star-lit nights, and to see what the narrator saw there was no night of Egyptian darkness. But because it was night 6a is not to be translated: I looked about among those devoid of experience (thus e.
g. , Löwenstein); but he saw among these, observed among the youths, who thus late amused themselves without, a young man whose want of understanding was manifest from what further happened. Bertheau: that I might see, is syntactically impossible. The meaning of וארא is not determined by the אבינה following, but conversely אבינה stands under the operation of ו (= אבינה, Neh 13:7), characterizing the historic aorist.
Regarding פּתי, vid . , at Pro 1:4. בּנים is the masc. of בּנות, Arab. benât in the meaning maiden. בבּנים has in correct texts, according to the rules of the accents, the ב raphatum .
Pro 7:8-9 Now follows, whither he saw the young fop [ Laffen ] then go in the darkness. 8 Going up and down the street near her corner, And he walked along the way to her house, 9 In the twilight, when the day declined, In the midst of the night and deep darkness. We may interpret עבר as appos. : juvenem amentem, ambulantem , or as the predicate accus. : vidi juvenem ...
ambulantem ; for that one may so express himself in Hebrew (cf. e. g. , Isa 6:1; Dan 8:7), Hitzig unwarrantably denies. The passing over of the part. into the finite, 8b, is like Pro 2:14, Pro 2:17, and that of the inf . Pro 1:27; Pro 2:8. שׁוּק, Arab. suk (dimin. suweiḳa, to separate, from sikkat, street, alley), still means, as in former times, a broad street, a principal street, as well as an open place, a market-place where business is transacted, or according to its etymon: where cattle are driven for sale.
On the street he went backwards and forwards, yet so that he kept near to her corner ( i. e. , of the woman whom he waited for), i. e. , he never withdrew himself far from the corner of her house, and always again returned to it. The corner is named, because from that place he could always cast a look over the front of the house to see whether she whom he waited for showed herself.
Regarding פּנּהּ for פּנּתהּ, vid . , at Psa 27:5 : a primary form פּן has never been in use; פּנּים, Zec 14:10, is plur. of פּנּהּ. אצל (from אצל, Arab. wasl, to bind) is, as a substantive, the side (as the place where one thing connects itself with another), and thus as a preposition it means (like juxta from jungere ) beside, Ital. allato . דּרכו is the object.
accus. , for thus are construed verbs eundi ( e. g. , Hab 3:12, Num. 30:17, cf. Pro 21:22).
Pro 7:8-9 Now follows, whither he saw the young fop [ Laffen ] then go in the darkness. 8 Going up and down the street near her corner, And he walked along the way to her house, 9 In the twilight, when the day declined, In the midst of the night and deep darkness. We may interpret עבר as appos. : juvenem amentem, ambulantem , or as the predicate accus. : vidi juvenem ...
ambulantem ; for that one may so express himself in Hebrew (cf. e. g. , Isa 6:1; Dan 8:7), Hitzig unwarrantably denies. The passing over of the part. into the finite, 8b, is like Pro 2:14, Pro 2:17, and that of the inf . Pro 1:27; Pro 2:8. שׁוּק, Arab. suk (dimin. suweiḳa, to separate, from sikkat, street, alley), still means, as in former times, a broad street, a principal street, as well as an open place, a market-place where business is transacted, or according to its etymon: where cattle are driven for sale.
On the street he went backwards and forwards, yet so that he kept near to her corner ( i. e. , of the woman whom he waited for), i. e. , he never withdrew himself far from the corner of her house, and always again returned to it. The corner is named, because from that place he could always cast a look over the front of the house to see whether she whom he waited for showed herself.
Regarding פּנּהּ for פּנּתהּ, vid . , at Psa 27:5 : a primary form פּן has never been in use; פּנּים, Zec 14:10, is plur. of פּנּהּ. אצל (from אצל, Arab. wasl, to bind) is, as a substantive, the side (as the place where one thing connects itself with another), and thus as a preposition it means (like juxta from jungere ) beside, Ital. allato . דּרכו is the object.
accus. , for thus are construed verbs eundi ( e. g. , Hab 3:12, Num. 30:17, cf. Pro 21:22).
Pro 7:10-12 Finally, the young man devoid of understanding sees his waiting rewarded: like meets like. 10 And, lo, a woman coming to meet him, In the attire of an harlot and of subtle heart. 11 Boisterous is she, and ungovernable; Her feet have no rest in her own house. 12 At one time before her door, at another in the street, And again at every corner she places herself on the watch.
“Pro 7:12 (Hitzig) expresses what is wont to be, instead of a single event, Pro 7:11, viz. , the custom of a street harlot. But she who is spoken of is not such an one; lurking is not applicable to her (cf. Job 31:9), and, Pro 7:11, it is not meant that she is thus inclined. ” But Hitzig’s rendering of Pro 7:11, “she was boisterous ... in her house her feet had no rest,” is inaccurate, since neither היאו nor שׁכנוּ is used.
Thus in Pro 7:11 and Pro 7:12 the poet gives a characteristic of the woman, introduced by הנּהו into the frame of his picture, which goes beyond that which then presented itself to his eyes. We must with Pro 7:12 reject also Pro 7:11; and even that would not be a radical improvement, since that characteristic lying behind the evident, that which was then evident begins with וּנצרת לב (and subtle in heart).
We must thus suppose that the woman was not unknown to the observer here describing her. He describes her first as she then appeared. שׁית Hitzig regards as equivalent to שׁוית, similitude (from שׁוה), and why? Because שׁית does not mean “to lay against,” but “to place. ” But Exo 33:4 shows the contrary, and justifies the meaning attire, which the word also has in Psa 73:6.
Meîri less suitably compares 2Ki 9:30, but rightly explains תקון (dressing, ornament), and remarks that שׁית elliptical is equivalent to בּשׁית. It is not the nominative (Bertheau), but the accusative, as תבנית, Psa 144:12, Ewald, §279d. How Hitzig reaches the translation of ונצרת לב by “and an arrow in her heart” ( et saucia corde ) one can only understand by reading his commentary.
The usage of the language, Pro 4:23, he remarks, among other things, would stamp her as a virtuous person. As if a phrase like נצר לב could be used both sensu bono and sensu malo ! One can guard his heart when he protects it carefully against moral danger, or also when he purposely conceals that which is in it. The part . נצוּר signifies, Isa 1:8, besieged (blockaded), Eze 16:12, protected, guarded, and Isa 48:6; Isa 65:4, concealed, hidden.
Ewald, §187b, refers these three significations in the two passages in Isaiah and in the passage before us to צרר, Niph . נצר (as נגל); but (1) one would then more surely take צוּר (cf. נמּול, נבכים) as the verbal stem; (2) one reaches the idea of the concealed (the hidden) easier from that of the preserved than from that of the confined. As one says in Lat.
homo occultus, tectus, abstrusus , in the sense of κρυψίνους, so it is said of that woman נצרת לב, not so much in the sense of retenta cor, h. e. quae quod in corde haberet non pandebat , Fr. retenue (Cocc.) , as in the sense of custodita cor, quae intentionem cordis mentemque suam callide novit premere (Mich.) : she is of a hidden mind, of a concealed nature; for she feigns fidelity to her husband and flatters her paramours as her only beloved, while in truth she loves none, and each of them is to her only a means to an end, viz.
, to the indulgence of her worldly sensual desire. For, as the author further describes here, she is המיּה (fem. of המה = המי, as Pro 1:21; Isa 22:2), tumultuosa , externally as internally impetuous, because full of intermingling lust and deceit ( opp . ἡσύχιος, 1Pe 3:4; 1Ti 2:11), and סררת, self-willed, not minding the law of duty, of discretion, or of modesty (from סרר, Arab.
sharr, pervicacem, malum esse ). She is the very opposite of the noiseless activity and the gentle modesty of a true house-wife, rude, stubborn, and also vagrant like a beast in its season (Hos 4:14): in domo ipsius residere nequeunt pedes ejus ; thus not οἰκουρός or οἰκουργός (Tit 2:5), far removed from the genuine woman - like εἴσω ἥσυχον μένειν δόμων or as she is called in Aram.
נפקת בּרא.
Pro 7:10-12 Finally, the young man devoid of understanding sees his waiting rewarded: like meets like. 10 And, lo, a woman coming to meet him, In the attire of an harlot and of subtle heart. 11 Boisterous is she, and ungovernable; Her feet have no rest in her own house. 12 At one time before her door, at another in the street, And again at every corner she places herself on the watch.
“Pro 7:12 (Hitzig) expresses what is wont to be, instead of a single event, Pro 7:11, viz. , the custom of a street harlot. But she who is spoken of is not such an one; lurking is not applicable to her (cf. Job 31:9), and, Pro 7:11, it is not meant that she is thus inclined. ” But Hitzig’s rendering of Pro 7:11, “she was boisterous ... in her house her feet had no rest,” is inaccurate, since neither היאו nor שׁכנוּ is used.
Thus in Pro 7:11 and Pro 7:12 the poet gives a characteristic of the woman, introduced by הנּהו into the frame of his picture, which goes beyond that which then presented itself to his eyes. We must with Pro 7:12 reject also Pro 7:11; and even that would not be a radical improvement, since that characteristic lying behind the evident, that which was then evident begins with וּנצרת לב (and subtle in heart).
We must thus suppose that the woman was not unknown to the observer here describing her. He describes her first as she then appeared. שׁית Hitzig regards as equivalent to שׁוית, similitude (from שׁוה), and why? Because שׁית does not mean “to lay against,” but “to place. ” But Exo 33:4 shows the contrary, and justifies the meaning attire, which the word also has in Psa 73:6.
Meîri less suitably compares 2Ki 9:30, but rightly explains תקון (dressing, ornament), and remarks that שׁית elliptical is equivalent to בּשׁית. It is not the nominative (Bertheau), but the accusative, as תבנית, Psa 144:12, Ewald, §279d. How Hitzig reaches the translation of ונצרת לב by “and an arrow in her heart” ( et saucia corde ) one can only understand by reading his commentary.
The usage of the language, Pro 4:23, he remarks, among other things, would stamp her as a virtuous person. As if a phrase like נצר לב could be used both sensu bono and sensu malo ! One can guard his heart when he protects it carefully against moral danger, or also when he purposely conceals that which is in it. The part . נצוּר signifies, Isa 1:8, besieged (blockaded), Eze 16:12, protected, guarded, and Isa 48:6; Isa 65:4, concealed, hidden.
Ewald, §187b, refers these three significations in the two passages in Isaiah and in the passage before us to צרר, Niph . נצר (as נגל); but (1) one would then more surely take צוּר (cf. נמּול, נבכים) as the verbal stem; (2) one reaches the idea of the concealed (the hidden) easier from that of the preserved than from that of the confined. As one says in Lat.
homo occultus, tectus, abstrusus , in the sense of κρυψίνους, so it is said of that woman נצרת לב, not so much in the sense of retenta cor, h. e. quae quod in corde haberet non pandebat , Fr. retenue (Cocc.) , as in the sense of custodita cor, quae intentionem cordis mentemque suam callide novit premere (Mich.) : she is of a hidden mind, of a concealed nature; for she feigns fidelity to her husband and flatters her paramours as her only beloved, while in truth she loves none, and each of them is to her only a means to an end, viz.
, to the indulgence of her worldly sensual desire. For, as the author further describes here, she is המיּה (fem. of המה = המי, as Pro 1:21; Isa 22:2), tumultuosa , externally as internally impetuous, because full of intermingling lust and deceit ( opp . ἡσύχιος, 1Pe 3:4; 1Ti 2:11), and סררת, self-willed, not minding the law of duty, of discretion, or of modesty (from סרר, Arab.
sharr, pervicacem, malum esse ). She is the very opposite of the noiseless activity and the gentle modesty of a true house-wife, rude, stubborn, and also vagrant like a beast in its season (Hos 4:14): in domo ipsius residere nequeunt pedes ejus ; thus not οἰκουρός or οἰκουργός (Tit 2:5), far removed from the genuine woman - like εἴσω ἥσυχον μένειν δόμων or as she is called in Aram.
נפקת בּרא.
Pro 7:10-12 Finally, the young man devoid of understanding sees his waiting rewarded: like meets like. 10 And, lo, a woman coming to meet him, In the attire of an harlot and of subtle heart. 11 Boisterous is she, and ungovernable; Her feet have no rest in her own house. 12 At one time before her door, at another in the street, And again at every corner she places herself on the watch.
“Pro 7:12 (Hitzig) expresses what is wont to be, instead of a single event, Pro 7:11, viz. , the custom of a street harlot. But she who is spoken of is not such an one; lurking is not applicable to her (cf. Job 31:9), and, Pro 7:11, it is not meant that she is thus inclined. ” But Hitzig’s rendering of Pro 7:11, “she was boisterous ... in her house her feet had no rest,” is inaccurate, since neither היאו nor שׁכנוּ is used.
Thus in Pro 7:11 and Pro 7:12 the poet gives a characteristic of the woman, introduced by הנּהו into the frame of his picture, which goes beyond that which then presented itself to his eyes. We must with Pro 7:12 reject also Pro 7:11; and even that would not be a radical improvement, since that characteristic lying behind the evident, that which was then evident begins with וּנצרת לב (and subtle in heart).
We must thus suppose that the woman was not unknown to the observer here describing her. He describes her first as she then appeared. שׁית Hitzig regards as equivalent to שׁוית, similitude (from שׁוה), and why? Because שׁית does not mean “to lay against,” but “to place. ” But Exo 33:4 shows the contrary, and justifies the meaning attire, which the word also has in Psa 73:6.
Meîri less suitably compares 2Ki 9:30, but rightly explains תקון (dressing, ornament), and remarks that שׁית elliptical is equivalent to בּשׁית. It is not the nominative (Bertheau), but the accusative, as תבנית, Psa 144:12, Ewald, §279d. How Hitzig reaches the translation of ונצרת לב by “and an arrow in her heart” ( et saucia corde ) one can only understand by reading his commentary.
The usage of the language, Pro 4:23, he remarks, among other things, would stamp her as a virtuous person. As if a phrase like נצר לב could be used both sensu bono and sensu malo ! One can guard his heart when he protects it carefully against moral danger, or also when he purposely conceals that which is in it. The part . נצוּר signifies, Isa 1:8, besieged (blockaded), Eze 16:12, protected, guarded, and Isa 48:6; Isa 65:4, concealed, hidden.
Ewald, §187b, refers these three significations in the two passages in Isaiah and in the passage before us to צרר, Niph . נצר (as נגל); but (1) one would then more surely take צוּר (cf. נמּול, נבכים) as the verbal stem; (2) one reaches the idea of the concealed (the hidden) easier from that of the preserved than from that of the confined. As one says in Lat.
homo occultus, tectus, abstrusus , in the sense of κρυψίνους, so it is said of that woman נצרת לב, not so much in the sense of retenta cor, h. e. quae quod in corde haberet non pandebat , Fr. retenue (Cocc.) , as in the sense of custodita cor, quae intentionem cordis mentemque suam callide novit premere (Mich.) : she is of a hidden mind, of a concealed nature; for she feigns fidelity to her husband and flatters her paramours as her only beloved, while in truth she loves none, and each of them is to her only a means to an end, viz.
, to the indulgence of her worldly sensual desire. For, as the author further describes here, she is המיּה (fem. of המה = המי, as Pro 1:21; Isa 22:2), tumultuosa , externally as internally impetuous, because full of intermingling lust and deceit ( opp . ἡσύχιος, 1Pe 3:4; 1Ti 2:11), and סררת, self-willed, not minding the law of duty, of discretion, or of modesty (from סרר, Arab.
sharr, pervicacem, malum esse ). She is the very opposite of the noiseless activity and the gentle modesty of a true house-wife, rude, stubborn, and also vagrant like a beast in its season (Hos 4:14): in domo ipsius residere nequeunt pedes ejus ; thus not οἰκουρός or οἰκουργός (Tit 2:5), far removed from the genuine woman - like εἴσω ἥσυχον μένειν δόμων or as she is called in Aram.
נפקת בּרא.
Pro 7:13 After this digression the poet returns to the subject, and further describes the event as observed by himself. And she laid hold on him and kissed him; Put on a bold brow and said to him. The verb נשׁק is here, after its primary signification, connected with the dat. : osculum fixit ei . Thus also Gen 27:26 is construed, and the Dagesh in לּו is, as there, Dag.
forte conj . , after the law for which the national grammarians have coined the technical name אתי מרחיק ( veniens e longinquo , “coming out of the distance,” i. e. , the attraction of a word following by one accented on the penult .) The penult . -accenting of נשׁקה is the consequence of the retrogression of the accent (נסוג אחור), which, here where the word from the first had the penult , only with Metheg , and thus with a half a tone, brings with it the dageshing of the לו following, as the original penultima-accenting of והחזיקה does of the בו which follows it, for the reading בּו by Löwenstein is contrary to the laws of punctuation of the Textus receptus under consideration here.
As בו and לו have received the doubling Dagesh , so on the other hand, according to Ewald, §193b, it has disappeared from העזה (written with Raphe according to Kimchi, Michlol 145a). And as נשׁקה has the tone thrown back, so the proper pausal ותּאמר is accented on the ult. , but without attracting the לו following by dageshing, which is the case only when the first of the two words terminates in the sound of ā (āh).
העז פניו is said of one who shows firmness of hardness of countenance (Arab. slabt alwajh), i. e. , one who shows shamelessness, or, as we say, an iron forehead (Fl.)
Pro 7:14-15 She laid hold on him and kissed him, both of which actions were shameless, and then, assuming the passivity and modesty befitting the woman, and disregarding morality and the law, she said to the youth: 14 “To bring peace-offerings was binding upon me, To-day have I redeemed my vows. 15 Therefore am I come out to meet thee, To seek thy face, and have found thee.
” We have translated זבחי שׁלמים “peace-offerings,” proceeding on the principle that שׁלם (sing. only Amo 5:22, and on the Phoenician altar at Marseilles) denotes contracting friendship with one (from שׁלם, to hold friendly relationship), and then the gifts having this in view; for the idea of this kind of offering is the attestation and confirmation of communion with God.
But in view of the derivatives שׁלמנים and שׁלּוּם, it is perhaps more appropriate to combine שׁלם with שׁלּם, to discharge perfectly, and to translate it thank-payment-offering, or with v. Hofmann, a due-offering, where not directly thank-offering; for the proper eucharistic offering, which is the expression of thanks on a particular occasion, is removed from the species of the Shelamim by the addition of the words על־תּודה (Lev 7:12-25).
The characteristic of the Shelamim is the division of the flesh of the sacrifice between Jahve and His priests on the one side, and the person (or persons) bringing it on the other side: only one part of the flesh of the sacrifice was Jahve’s, consumed by fire (Lev 3:16); the priests received one part; those who brought the offering received back another part as it were from the altar of God, that they might eat it with holy joy along with their household. So here the adulteress says that there was binding upon her, in consequence of a vow she had taken, the duty of presenting peace-offerings, or offerings that were due; to-day (she reckons the day in the sense of the dies civilis from night to night) she has performed her duties, and the שׁלמי נדר have yielded much to her that she might therewith regale him, her true lover; for with על־כּן she means to say that even the prospect of the gay festival which she can prepare for him moved her thus to meet him.
This address of the woman affords us a glimpse into the history of the customs of those times. The Shelamim meals degenerated in the same manner as our Kirmsen . Secularization lies doubly near to merrymaking when the law sanctions this, and it can conceal itself behind the mask of piety. Regarding שׁחר, a more exact word for בּקּשׁ, vid . , at Pro 1:28. To seek the countenance of one is equivalent to to seek his person, himself, but yet not without reference to the wished-for look [ aspectus ] of the person.
Pro 7:14-15 She laid hold on him and kissed him, both of which actions were shameless, and then, assuming the passivity and modesty befitting the woman, and disregarding morality and the law, she said to the youth: 14 “To bring peace-offerings was binding upon me, To-day have I redeemed my vows. 15 Therefore am I come out to meet thee, To seek thy face, and have found thee.
” We have translated זבחי שׁלמים “peace-offerings,” proceeding on the principle that שׁלם (sing. only Amo 5:22, and on the Phoenician altar at Marseilles) denotes contracting friendship with one (from שׁלם, to hold friendly relationship), and then the gifts having this in view; for the idea of this kind of offering is the attestation and confirmation of communion with God.
But in view of the derivatives שׁלמנים and שׁלּוּם, it is perhaps more appropriate to combine שׁלם with שׁלּם, to discharge perfectly, and to translate it thank-payment-offering, or with v. Hofmann, a due-offering, where not directly thank-offering; for the proper eucharistic offering, which is the expression of thanks on a particular occasion, is removed from the species of the Shelamim by the addition of the words על־תּודה (Lev 7:12-25).
The characteristic of the Shelamim is the division of the flesh of the sacrifice between Jahve and His priests on the one side, and the person (or persons) bringing it on the other side: only one part of the flesh of the sacrifice was Jahve’s, consumed by fire (Lev 3:16); the priests received one part; those who brought the offering received back another part as it were from the altar of God, that they might eat it with holy joy along with their household. So here the adulteress says that there was binding upon her, in consequence of a vow she had taken, the duty of presenting peace-offerings, or offerings that were due; to-day (she reckons the day in the sense of the dies civilis from night to night) she has performed her duties, and the שׁלמי נדר have yielded much to her that she might therewith regale him, her true lover; for with על־כּן she means to say that even the prospect of the gay festival which she can prepare for him moved her thus to meet him.
This address of the woman affords us a glimpse into the history of the customs of those times. The Shelamim meals degenerated in the same manner as our Kirmsen . Secularization lies doubly near to merrymaking when the law sanctions this, and it can conceal itself behind the mask of piety. Regarding שׁחר, a more exact word for בּקּשׁ, vid . , at Pro 1:28. To seek the countenance of one is equivalent to to seek his person, himself, but yet not without reference to the wished-for look [ aspectus ] of the person.
Pro 7:16-18 Thus she found him, and described to him the enjoyment which awaited him in eating and drinking, then in the pleasures of love. 16 “My bed have I spread with cushions, Variegated coverlets, Egyptian linen; 17 I have sprinkled my couch With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come then, we will intoxicate ourselves with love till the morning, And will satisfy ourselves in love.
” The noun ערשׂ, from ערשׂ, = Arab. 'arash, aedificare, fabricari , signifies generally the wooden frame; thus not so much the bed within as the erected bed-place (cf. Arab. 'arsh, throne, and 'arysh, arbour). This bedstead she had richly and beautifully cushioned, that it might be soft and agreeable. רבד, from רב, signifies to lay on or apply closely, thus either vincire (whence the name of the necklace, Gen 41:42) or sternere (different from רפד, Job 17:13, which acquires the meaning sternere from the root-meaning to raise up from under, sublevare ), whence מרבדּים, cushions, pillows, stragulae .
Böttcher punctuates מרבדּים incorrectly; the ב remains aspirated, and the connection of the syllables is looser than in מרבּה, Ewald, §88d. The צטבות beginning the second half-verse is in no case an adjective to מרבדים, in every case only appos. , probably an independent conception; not derived from חטב (cogn. חצב), to hew wood (whence Arab. ḥaṭab, fire-wood), according to which Kimchi, and with him the Graec.
Venet. (περιξύστοις), understands it of the carefully polished bed-poles or bed-boards, but from חטב = Arab. khaṭeba, to be streaked, of diverse colours ( vid . , under Psa 144:12), whence the Syriac machṭabto, a figured (striped, checkered) garment. Hitzig finds the idea of coloured or variegated here unsuitable, but without justice; for the pleasantness of a bed is augmented not only by its softness, but also by the impression which its costliness makes on the eye.
The following אטוּן מצרים stands in an appositional relation to חטבות, as when one says in Arabic taub-un dı̂bâg'-un, a garment brocade = of brocade. אטוּן (after the Syr. for אטוּן, as אמוּן) signifies in the Targum the cord ( e. g. , Jer 38:6), like the Arab. ṭunub, Syr. ( e. g. , Isa 54:2) tûnob; the root is טן, not in the sense of to bind, to wind (Deitr.)
, but in the sense of to stretch; the thread or cord is named from the extension in regard to length, and אטון is thus thread-work, whether in weaving or spinning. The fame of Egyptian manufactures is still expressed in the Spanish aclabtea , fine linen cloth, which is equivalent to the modern Arabic el-ḳobṭı̂je (ḳibṭije); they had there particularly also an intimate acquaintance with the dye stuffs found in the plants and fossils of the country (Klemm’s Culturgeschichte , v.
308-310).
Pro 7:16-18 Thus she found him, and described to him the enjoyment which awaited him in eating and drinking, then in the pleasures of love. 16 “My bed have I spread with cushions, Variegated coverlets, Egyptian linen; 17 I have sprinkled my couch With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come then, we will intoxicate ourselves with love till the morning, And will satisfy ourselves in love.
” The noun ערשׂ, from ערשׂ, = Arab. 'arash, aedificare, fabricari , signifies generally the wooden frame; thus not so much the bed within as the erected bed-place (cf. Arab. 'arsh, throne, and 'arysh, arbour). This bedstead she had richly and beautifully cushioned, that it might be soft and agreeable. רבד, from רב, signifies to lay on or apply closely, thus either vincire (whence the name of the necklace, Gen 41:42) or sternere (different from רפד, Job 17:13, which acquires the meaning sternere from the root-meaning to raise up from under, sublevare ), whence מרבדּים, cushions, pillows, stragulae .
Böttcher punctuates מרבדּים incorrectly; the ב remains aspirated, and the connection of the syllables is looser than in מרבּה, Ewald, §88d. The צטבות beginning the second half-verse is in no case an adjective to מרבדים, in every case only appos. , probably an independent conception; not derived from חטב (cogn. חצב), to hew wood (whence Arab. ḥaṭab, fire-wood), according to which Kimchi, and with him the Graec.
Venet. (περιξύστοις), understands it of the carefully polished bed-poles or bed-boards, but from חטב = Arab. khaṭeba, to be streaked, of diverse colours ( vid . , under Psa 144:12), whence the Syriac machṭabto, a figured (striped, checkered) garment. Hitzig finds the idea of coloured or variegated here unsuitable, but without justice; for the pleasantness of a bed is augmented not only by its softness, but also by the impression which its costliness makes on the eye.
The following אטוּן מצרים stands in an appositional relation to חטבות, as when one says in Arabic taub-un dı̂bâg'-un, a garment brocade = of brocade. אטוּן (after the Syr. for אטוּן, as אמוּן) signifies in the Targum the cord ( e. g. , Jer 38:6), like the Arab. ṭunub, Syr. ( e. g. , Isa 54:2) tûnob; the root is טן, not in the sense of to bind, to wind (Deitr.)
, but in the sense of to stretch; the thread or cord is named from the extension in regard to length, and אטון is thus thread-work, whether in weaving or spinning. The fame of Egyptian manufactures is still expressed in the Spanish aclabtea , fine linen cloth, which is equivalent to the modern Arabic el-ḳobṭı̂je (ḳibṭije); they had there particularly also an intimate acquaintance with the dye stuffs found in the plants and fossils of the country (Klemm’s Culturgeschichte , v.
308-310).
Pro 7:16-18 Thus she found him, and described to him the enjoyment which awaited him in eating and drinking, then in the pleasures of love. 16 “My bed have I spread with cushions, Variegated coverlets, Egyptian linen; 17 I have sprinkled my couch With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come then, we will intoxicate ourselves with love till the morning, And will satisfy ourselves in love.
” The noun ערשׂ, from ערשׂ, = Arab. 'arash, aedificare, fabricari , signifies generally the wooden frame; thus not so much the bed within as the erected bed-place (cf. Arab. 'arsh, throne, and 'arysh, arbour). This bedstead she had richly and beautifully cushioned, that it might be soft and agreeable. רבד, from רב, signifies to lay on or apply closely, thus either vincire (whence the name of the necklace, Gen 41:42) or sternere (different from רפד, Job 17:13, which acquires the meaning sternere from the root-meaning to raise up from under, sublevare ), whence מרבדּים, cushions, pillows, stragulae .
Böttcher punctuates מרבדּים incorrectly; the ב remains aspirated, and the connection of the syllables is looser than in מרבּה, Ewald, §88d. The צטבות beginning the second half-verse is in no case an adjective to מרבדים, in every case only appos. , probably an independent conception; not derived from חטב (cogn. חצב), to hew wood (whence Arab. ḥaṭab, fire-wood), according to which Kimchi, and with him the Graec.
Venet. (περιξύστοις), understands it of the carefully polished bed-poles or bed-boards, but from חטב = Arab. khaṭeba, to be streaked, of diverse colours ( vid . , under Psa 144:12), whence the Syriac machṭabto, a figured (striped, checkered) garment. Hitzig finds the idea of coloured or variegated here unsuitable, but without justice; for the pleasantness of a bed is augmented not only by its softness, but also by the impression which its costliness makes on the eye.
The following אטוּן מצרים stands in an appositional relation to חטבות, as when one says in Arabic taub-un dı̂bâg'-un, a garment brocade = of brocade. אטוּן (after the Syr. for אטוּן, as אמוּן) signifies in the Targum the cord ( e. g. , Jer 38:6), like the Arab. ṭunub, Syr. ( e. g. , Isa 54:2) tûnob; the root is טן, not in the sense of to bind, to wind (Deitr.)
, but in the sense of to stretch; the thread or cord is named from the extension in regard to length, and אטון is thus thread-work, whether in weaving or spinning. The fame of Egyptian manufactures is still expressed in the Spanish aclabtea , fine linen cloth, which is equivalent to the modern Arabic el-ḳobṭı̂je (ḳibṭije); they had there particularly also an intimate acquaintance with the dye stuffs found in the plants and fossils of the country (Klemm’s Culturgeschichte , v.
308-310).
Pro 7:19-20 The adulteress now deprives the youth of all fear; the circumstances under which her invitation is given are as favourable as possible. 19 “For the man is not at home, He has gone on a long journey. 20 He has taken the purse with him: He will not return home till the day of the full moon. ” It is true that the article stands in האישׁ, Arab. alm'ar-fat, i.
e. , serves to define the word: the man, to whom here κατ ̓ ̓ξοχήν and alone reference can be made, viz. , the husband of the adulteress (Fl.) ; but on the other side it is characteristic that she does not say אישׁי (as e. g. , Gen 29:32), but ignores the relation of love and duty in which she is placed to him, and speaks of him as one standing at a distance from her (Aben-Ezra).
Erroneously Vogel reads בּבּית after the Targ. instead of בּביתו. We say in Hebr. אינו בביתו, il n'est pas chez soi , as we say לקח בּידו, il a pris avec soi (cf. Jer 38:10). מרחוק Hitzig seeks to connect with the verb, which, after Isa 17:13; Isa 22:3, is possible; for the Hebr. מרחוק (ממּרחק), far off, has frequently the meaning from afar, for the measure of length is determined not from the point of departure outward, but from the end, as e.
g. , Homer, Il . ii. 456; ἕκαθεν δέ τε φαίνεται αὐγή, from afar the gleam is seen, i. e. , shines hither from the distance. Similarly we say in French, il vient du coté du nord , he comes from the north, as well as il va du coté du nord , he goes northwards. But as we do not say: he has gone on a journey far off, but: on a distant journey, so here מרחוק is virtually an adj.
( vid . , under Isa 5:26) equivalent to רחוקה (Num 9:10): a journey which is distant = such as from it he has a long way back. Michaelis has well remarked here: ut timorem ei penitus adimat, veluti per gradus incedit . He has undertaken a journey to a remote point, but yet more: he has taken money with him, has thus business to detain him; and still further: he has even determined the distant time of his return.
צרור־הכּסף . nruter (thus to be written after Ben-Asher, vid . , Baer’s Torath Emeth , p. 41) is the purse (from צרר, to bind together), not one of many, but that which is his own. The terminus precedes 20b to emphasize the lateness; vid . , on כּסא under Psa 81:4. Graec. Venet. τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ καιροῦ, after Kimchi and others, who derive כסא (כסה) from the root כס, to reckon, and regard it as denoting only a definite time.
But the two passages require a special idea; and the Syr. ḳêso, which in 1Ki 12:32; 2Ch 7:10, designates the time from the 15th day of the month, shows that the word denotes not, according to the Talmud, the new moon (or the new year’s day), when the moon’s disk begins to cover itself, i. e. , to fill (יתכסה), but the full moon, when it is covered, i. e. , filled; so that thus the time of the night-scene here described is not that of the last quarter of the moon (Ewald), in which it rises at midnight, but that of the new moon (Hitzig), when the night is without moonlight.
Since the derivation of the word from כסא (כסה), to cover, gives the satisfactory idea of the covering or filling of the moon’s disk, we do not seek after any other; Dietrich fixes on the root-idea of roundness, and Hitzig of vision (כסא = סכה, שׂכה, vid . , on the contrary, under Psa 143:9). The ל is that of time at which, in which, about which, anything is done; it is more indefinite than בּ would be.
He will not return for some fourteen days.
Pro 7:19-20 The adulteress now deprives the youth of all fear; the circumstances under which her invitation is given are as favourable as possible. 19 “For the man is not at home, He has gone on a long journey. 20 He has taken the purse with him: He will not return home till the day of the full moon. ” It is true that the article stands in האישׁ, Arab. alm'ar-fat, i.
e. , serves to define the word: the man, to whom here κατ ̓ ̓ξοχήν and alone reference can be made, viz. , the husband of the adulteress (Fl.) ; but on the other side it is characteristic that she does not say אישׁי (as e. g. , Gen 29:32), but ignores the relation of love and duty in which she is placed to him, and speaks of him as one standing at a distance from her (Aben-Ezra).
Erroneously Vogel reads בּבּית after the Targ. instead of בּביתו. We say in Hebr. אינו בביתו, il n'est pas chez soi , as we say לקח בּידו, il a pris avec soi (cf. Jer 38:10). מרחוק Hitzig seeks to connect with the verb, which, after Isa 17:13; Isa 22:3, is possible; for the Hebr. מרחוק (ממּרחק), far off, has frequently the meaning from afar, for the measure of length is determined not from the point of departure outward, but from the end, as e.
g. , Homer, Il . ii. 456; ἕκαθεν δέ τε φαίνεται αὐγή, from afar the gleam is seen, i. e. , shines hither from the distance. Similarly we say in French, il vient du coté du nord , he comes from the north, as well as il va du coté du nord , he goes northwards. But as we do not say: he has gone on a journey far off, but: on a distant journey, so here מרחוק is virtually an adj.
( vid . , under Isa 5:26) equivalent to רחוקה (Num 9:10): a journey which is distant = such as from it he has a long way back. Michaelis has well remarked here: ut timorem ei penitus adimat, veluti per gradus incedit . He has undertaken a journey to a remote point, but yet more: he has taken money with him, has thus business to detain him; and still further: he has even determined the distant time of his return.
צרור־הכּסף . nruter (thus to be written after Ben-Asher, vid . , Baer’s Torath Emeth , p. 41) is the purse (from צרר, to bind together), not one of many, but that which is his own. The terminus precedes 20b to emphasize the lateness; vid . , on כּסא under Psa 81:4. Graec. Venet. τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ καιροῦ, after Kimchi and others, who derive כסא (כסה) from the root כס, to reckon, and regard it as denoting only a definite time.
But the two passages require a special idea; and the Syr. ḳêso, which in 1Ki 12:32; 2Ch 7:10, designates the time from the 15th day of the month, shows that the word denotes not, according to the Talmud, the new moon (or the new year’s day), when the moon’s disk begins to cover itself, i. e. , to fill (יתכסה), but the full moon, when it is covered, i. e. , filled; so that thus the time of the night-scene here described is not that of the last quarter of the moon (Ewald), in which it rises at midnight, but that of the new moon (Hitzig), when the night is without moonlight.
Since the derivation of the word from כסא (כסה), to cover, gives the satisfactory idea of the covering or filling of the moon’s disk, we do not seek after any other; Dietrich fixes on the root-idea of roundness, and Hitzig of vision (כסא = סכה, שׂכה, vid . , on the contrary, under Psa 143:9). The ל is that of time at which, in which, about which, anything is done; it is more indefinite than בּ would be.
He will not return for some fourteen days.
Pro 7:21 The result: - 21 She beguiled him by the fulness of her talking, By the smoothness of her lips she drew him away. Here is a climax. First she brought him to yield, overcoming the resistance of his mind to the last point (cf. 1Ki 11:3); then drove him, or, as we say, hurried him wholly away, viz. , from the right path or conduct (cf. Deu 13:6, Deu 13:11).
With הטּתּוּ (= הטּתהוּ) as the chief factum , the past imperf. is interchanged, 21b. Regarding לקח, see above, p. 56. Here is the rhetoric of sin (Zöckler); and perhaps the לקח of 20a has suggested this antiphrastic לקח to the author (Hitzig), as חלק (the inverted לקח, formed like שׁפל, which is the abstr . of שׁפל as that is of חלק) and תּדּיחנּוּ are reciprocally conditioned, for the idea of the slippery (Psa 73:18) connects itself with חלק.
Pro 7:22-23 What followed: - 22 So he goes after her at once As an ox which goeth to the slaughter-house, And as one bereft of reason to the restraint of fetters, 23 As a bird hastens to the net, Without knowing that his life is at stake - Till the arrow pierces his liver. The part. הולך (thus to be accentuated according to the rule in Baer’s Torath Emeth , p.
25, with Mercha to the tone-syllable and Mahpach to the preceding open syllable) preserves the idea of the fool’s going after her. פּתאם (suddenly) fixes the point, when he all at once resolves to betake himself to the rendezvous in the house of the adulteress, now a κεπφωθείς, as the lxx translates, i. e. , as we say, a simpleton who has gone on the lime-twig.
He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter-house, unconscious that he is going thither to be slaughtered; the lxx ungrammatically destroying the attributive clause: ὥσπερ δὲ βοῦς ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἄγεται. The difficulties in וּכעכס (thus punctuated, after Kimchi, with a double Segol , and not וכעכס, as is frequently the case) multiply, and it is not to be reconciled with the traditional text.
The ox appears to require another beast as a side-piece; and accordingly the lxx, Syr. , and Targ. find in עכס a dog (to which from אויל they also pick out איּל, a stag), Jerome a lamb ( et quasi agnus כבשׂ), Rashi a venomous serpent (perhaps after ἔχις?) , Löwenstein and Malbim a rattlesnake (נחשׁ מצלצל after עכּס); but all this is mere conjecture. Symmachus’ σκιρτῶν (ἐπὶ δεσμῶν ἄφρων) is without support, and, like the favourite rendering of Schelling, et sicut saliens in vinculum cervus (איל), is unsuitable on account of the unsemitic position of the words.
The noun עכס, plur. עכסים, signifies, Isa 3:18, an anklet as a female ornament (whence Isa 3:16 the denom. עכּס, to make a tinkling of the anklets). In itself the word only means the fetter, compes , from עכס, Arab. 'akas, 'akash, contrahere, constringere ( vid . , Fleischer under Isa 59:5); and that it can also be used of any kind of means of checking free movement, the Arab.
'ikâs, as the name of a cord with which the camel is made fast by the head and forefeet, shows. With this signification the interpretation is: et velut pedicâ (= וכבעכס) implicatus ad castigationem stulti , he follows her as if (bound) with a fetter to the punishment of the fool, i. e. , of himself (Michaelis, Fleischer, and others). Otherwise Luther, who first translated “in a fetter,” but afterwards (supplying ל, not ב): “and as if to fetters, where one corrects fools.
” But the ellipsis is harsh, and the parallelism leads us to expect a living being in the place of עכס. Now since, according to Gesenius, עכס, fetter, can be equivalent to a fettered one neither at Isa 17:5; Isa 21:17, nor Pro 23:28 (according to which עכס must at least have an active personal signification), we transpose the nouns of the clause and write וכאויל אל־מוּסר עכס, he follows her as a fool ( Psychol .
p. 292) to correction (restraint) with fetters; or if אויל is to be understood not so much physically as morally, and refers to self-destroying conduct (Psa 107:7): as a madman, i. e. , a criminal, to chains. The one figure denotes the fate into which he rushes, like a beast devoid of reason, as the loss of life; and the other denotes the fate to which he permits himself to be led by that woman, like a criminal by the officer, as the loss of freedom and of honour.
Pro 7:22-23 What followed: - 22 So he goes after her at once As an ox which goeth to the slaughter-house, And as one bereft of reason to the restraint of fetters, 23 As a bird hastens to the net, Without knowing that his life is at stake - Till the arrow pierces his liver. The part. הולך (thus to be accentuated according to the rule in Baer’s Torath Emeth , p.
25, with Mercha to the tone-syllable and Mahpach to the preceding open syllable) preserves the idea of the fool’s going after her. פּתאם (suddenly) fixes the point, when he all at once resolves to betake himself to the rendezvous in the house of the adulteress, now a κεπφωθείς, as the lxx translates, i. e. , as we say, a simpleton who has gone on the lime-twig.
He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter-house, unconscious that he is going thither to be slaughtered; the lxx ungrammatically destroying the attributive clause: ὥσπερ δὲ βοῦς ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἄγεται. The difficulties in וּכעכס (thus punctuated, after Kimchi, with a double Segol , and not וכעכס, as is frequently the case) multiply, and it is not to be reconciled with the traditional text.
The ox appears to require another beast as a side-piece; and accordingly the lxx, Syr. , and Targ. find in עכס a dog (to which from אויל they also pick out איּל, a stag), Jerome a lamb ( et quasi agnus כבשׂ), Rashi a venomous serpent (perhaps after ἔχις?) , Löwenstein and Malbim a rattlesnake (נחשׁ מצלצל after עכּס); but all this is mere conjecture. Symmachus’ σκιρτῶν (ἐπὶ δεσμῶν ἄφρων) is without support, and, like the favourite rendering of Schelling, et sicut saliens in vinculum cervus (איל), is unsuitable on account of the unsemitic position of the words.
The noun עכס, plur. עכסים, signifies, Isa 3:18, an anklet as a female ornament (whence Isa 3:16 the denom. עכּס, to make a tinkling of the anklets). In itself the word only means the fetter, compes , from עכס, Arab. 'akas, 'akash, contrahere, constringere ( vid . , Fleischer under Isa 59:5); and that it can also be used of any kind of means of checking free movement, the Arab.
'ikâs, as the name of a cord with which the camel is made fast by the head and forefeet, shows. With this signification the interpretation is: et velut pedicâ (= וכבעכס) implicatus ad castigationem stulti , he follows her as if (bound) with a fetter to the punishment of the fool, i. e. , of himself (Michaelis, Fleischer, and others). Otherwise Luther, who first translated “in a fetter,” but afterwards (supplying ל, not ב): “and as if to fetters, where one corrects fools.
” But the ellipsis is harsh, and the parallelism leads us to expect a living being in the place of עכס. Now since, according to Gesenius, עכס, fetter, can be equivalent to a fettered one neither at Isa 17:5; Isa 21:17, nor Pro 23:28 (according to which עכס must at least have an active personal signification), we transpose the nouns of the clause and write וכאויל אל־מוּסר עכס, he follows her as a fool ( Psychol .
p. 292) to correction (restraint) with fetters; or if אויל is to be understood not so much physically as morally, and refers to self-destroying conduct (Psa 107:7): as a madman, i. e. , a criminal, to chains. The one figure denotes the fate into which he rushes, like a beast devoid of reason, as the loss of life; and the other denotes the fate to which he permits himself to be led by that woman, like a criminal by the officer, as the loss of freedom and of honour.
Pro 7:24-25 With ועתּה, as at Pro 5:7, the author now brings his narrative to a close, adding the exhortation deduced from it: 24 And now, ye children, give ear unto me, And observe the words of my mouth! 25 Let not thine heart incline to her ways, And stray not in her paths. The verb שׂטה (whence jēst, like jēt, Pro 4:15, with long ē from i ) the author uses also of departure from a wicked way (Pro 4:15); but here, where the portraiture of a faithless wife (a סוטה) is presented, the word used in the law of jealousy, Num 5, for the trespass of an אשׁת אישׁ is specially appropriate.
שׂטה is interchanged with תּעה (cf. Gen 21:14): wander not on her paths, which would be the consequence of straying on them. Theodotion: καὶ μὴ πλανηθῇς ἐν ἀτραποῖς αὐτῆς, with καί, as also Syr. , Targ. , and Jerome. The Masora reckons this verse to the 25 which have אל at the beginning and ואל at the middle of each clause ( vid . , Baer in the Luth. Zeitschrift , 1865, p.
587); the text of Norzi has therefore correctly ואל, which is found also in good MSS ( e. g. , the Erfurt, 2 and 3).
Pro 7:24-25 With ועתּה, as at Pro 5:7, the author now brings his narrative to a close, adding the exhortation deduced from it: 24 And now, ye children, give ear unto me, And observe the words of my mouth! 25 Let not thine heart incline to her ways, And stray not in her paths. The verb שׂטה (whence jēst, like jēt, Pro 4:15, with long ē from i ) the author uses also of departure from a wicked way (Pro 4:15); but here, where the portraiture of a faithless wife (a סוטה) is presented, the word used in the law of jealousy, Num 5, for the trespass of an אשׁת אישׁ is specially appropriate.
שׂטה is interchanged with תּעה (cf. Gen 21:14): wander not on her paths, which would be the consequence of straying on them. Theodotion: καὶ μὴ πλανηθῇς ἐν ἀτραποῖς αὐτῆς, with καί, as also Syr. , Targ. , and Jerome. The Masora reckons this verse to the 25 which have אל at the beginning and ואל at the middle of each clause ( vid . , Baer in the Luth. Zeitschrift , 1865, p.
587); the text of Norzi has therefore correctly ואל, which is found also in good MSS ( e. g. , the Erfurt, 2 and 3).
Pro 7:26-27 The admonition, having its motive in that which goes before, is now founded on the emphatic finale: 26 For many are the slain whom she hath caused to fall, And many are her slain. 27 A multiplicity of ways to help is her house, Going down to the chambers of death. The translation “for many slain has she laid low” (Syr. , Targ. , Jerome, Luther) is also syntactically possible; for רבּים can be placed before its substantive after the manner of the demonstratives and numerals ( e.
g. , Neh 9:28, cf. אחד, Sol 4:9), and the accentuation which requires two servants (the usual two Munachs ) to the Athnach appears indeed thus to construe it. It is otherwise if רבים here meant magni (thus e. g. , Ralbag, and recently Bertheau), and not multi; but רבים and עצמים stand elsewhere in connection with each other in the signification many and numerous, Psa 35:18; Joe 2:2; Mic 4:3.
“Her slain” are those slain by her; the part. pass. is connected with the genitive of the actor, e. g. , Pro 9:18; cf. (Arab.) ḳatyl âlmḥabbt, of one whom love kills (Fl.) With Pro 7:27 cf. Pro 2:18; Pro 9:18. In 27a, בּיתהּ is not equivalent to בביתה after Pro 8:2, also not elliptical and equivalent to דרכי ביתה; the former is unnecessary, the latter is in no case established by Psa 45:7; Ezr 10:13, nor by Deu 8:15; 2Ki 23:17 (see, on the other hand, Philippi’s Status Constructus , pp.
87-93). Rightly Hitzig has: her house forms a multiplicity of ways to hell, in so far as adultery leads by a diversity of ways to hell. Similarly the subject and the predicate vary in number, Pro 16:25; Psa 110:3; Job 26:13; Dan 9:23, and frequently. If one is once in her house, he may go in this or in that way, but surely his path is to destruction: it consists of many steps to hell, such as lead down (דרך, fem.
Isa 37:34, masc. Isa 30:21) to the extreme depths of death (cf. Job 9:9, “chambers of the south” = its remotest regions veiling themselves in the invisible); for חדר (Arab. khiddr) is the part of the tent or the house removed farthest back, and the most private (Fl.) These חדרי־מות, cf. עמקי שׁאול, Pro 9:18, approach to the conception of גּיהנּם, which is afterwards distinguished from שאול.
Pro 7:26-27 The admonition, having its motive in that which goes before, is now founded on the emphatic finale: 26 For many are the slain whom she hath caused to fall, And many are her slain. 27 A multiplicity of ways to help is her house, Going down to the chambers of death. The translation “for many slain has she laid low” (Syr. , Targ. , Jerome, Luther) is also syntactically possible; for רבּים can be placed before its substantive after the manner of the demonstratives and numerals ( e.
g. , Neh 9:28, cf. אחד, Sol 4:9), and the accentuation which requires two servants (the usual two Munachs ) to the Athnach appears indeed thus to construe it. It is otherwise if רבים here meant magni (thus e. g. , Ralbag, and recently Bertheau), and not multi; but רבים and עצמים stand elsewhere in connection with each other in the signification many and numerous, Psa 35:18; Joe 2:2; Mic 4:3.
“Her slain” are those slain by her; the part. pass. is connected with the genitive of the actor, e. g. , Pro 9:18; cf. (Arab.) ḳatyl âlmḥabbt, of one whom love kills (Fl.) With Pro 7:27 cf. Pro 2:18; Pro 9:18. In 27a, בּיתהּ is not equivalent to בביתה after Pro 8:2, also not elliptical and equivalent to דרכי ביתה; the former is unnecessary, the latter is in no case established by Psa 45:7; Ezr 10:13, nor by Deu 8:15; 2Ki 23:17 (see, on the other hand, Philippi’s Status Constructus , pp.
87-93). Rightly Hitzig has: her house forms a multiplicity of ways to hell, in so far as adultery leads by a diversity of ways to hell. Similarly the subject and the predicate vary in number, Pro 16:25; Psa 110:3; Job 26:13; Dan 9:23, and frequently. If one is once in her house, he may go in this or in that way, but surely his path is to destruction: it consists of many steps to hell, such as lead down (דרך, fem.
Isa 37:34, masc. Isa 30:21) to the extreme depths of death (cf. Job 9:9, “chambers of the south” = its remotest regions veiling themselves in the invisible); for חדר (Arab. khiddr) is the part of the tent or the house removed farthest back, and the most private (Fl.) These חדרי־מות, cf. עמקי שׁאול, Pro 9:18, approach to the conception of גּיהנּם, which is afterwards distinguished from שאול.
Pro 8:1-3 The author has now almost exhausted the ethical material; for in this introduction to the Solomonic Book of Proverbs he works it into a memorial for youth, so that it is time to think of concluding the circle by bending back the end to the beginning. For as in the beginning, Pro 1:20. , so also here in the end, he introduces Wisdom herself as speaking.
There, her own testimony is delivered in contrast to the alluring voice of the deceiver; here, the daughter of Heaven in the highways inviting to come to her, is the contrast to the adulteress lurking in the streets, who is indeed not a personification, but a woman of flesh and blood, but yet at the same time as the incarnate ἀπάτη of worldly lust. He places opposite to her Wisdom, whose person is indeed not so sensibly perceptible, but who is nevertheless as real, coming near to men in a human way, and seeking to win them by her gifts.
1 Doth not Wisdom discourse, And Understanding cause her voice to be heard? 2 On the top of the high places in the way, In the midst of the way, she has placed herself. 3 By the side of the gates, at the exit of the city, At the entrance to the doors, she calleth aloud. As הנּה points to that which is matter of fact, so הלא calls to a consideration of it (cf.
Pro 14:22); the question before the reader is doubly justified with reference to Pro 1:20. With חכמה, תבונה is interchanged, as e. g. , Pro 2:1-6; such names of wisdom are related to its principal name almost as אלהים, עליון, and the like, to יהוה. In describing the scene, the author, as usual, heaps up synonyms which touch one another without coming together.
Pro 8:1-3 The author has now almost exhausted the ethical material; for in this introduction to the Solomonic Book of Proverbs he works it into a memorial for youth, so that it is time to think of concluding the circle by bending back the end to the beginning. For as in the beginning, Pro 1:20. , so also here in the end, he introduces Wisdom herself as speaking.
There, her own testimony is delivered in contrast to the alluring voice of the deceiver; here, the daughter of Heaven in the highways inviting to come to her, is the contrast to the adulteress lurking in the streets, who is indeed not a personification, but a woman of flesh and blood, but yet at the same time as the incarnate ἀπάτη of worldly lust. He places opposite to her Wisdom, whose person is indeed not so sensibly perceptible, but who is nevertheless as real, coming near to men in a human way, and seeking to win them by her gifts.
1 Doth not Wisdom discourse, And Understanding cause her voice to be heard? 2 On the top of the high places in the way, In the midst of the way, she has placed herself. 3 By the side of the gates, at the exit of the city, At the entrance to the doors, she calleth aloud. As הנּה points to that which is matter of fact, so הלא calls to a consideration of it (cf.
Pro 14:22); the question before the reader is doubly justified with reference to Pro 1:20. With חכמה, תבונה is interchanged, as e. g. , Pro 2:1-6; such names of wisdom are related to its principal name almost as אלהים, עליון, and the like, to יהוה. In describing the scene, the author, as usual, heaps up synonyms which touch one another without coming together.
Pro 8:1-3 The author has now almost exhausted the ethical material; for in this introduction to the Solomonic Book of Proverbs he works it into a memorial for youth, so that it is time to think of concluding the circle by bending back the end to the beginning. For as in the beginning, Pro 1:20. , so also here in the end, he introduces Wisdom herself as speaking.
There, her own testimony is delivered in contrast to the alluring voice of the deceiver; here, the daughter of Heaven in the highways inviting to come to her, is the contrast to the adulteress lurking in the streets, who is indeed not a personification, but a woman of flesh and blood, but yet at the same time as the incarnate ἀπάτη of worldly lust. He places opposite to her Wisdom, whose person is indeed not so sensibly perceptible, but who is nevertheless as real, coming near to men in a human way, and seeking to win them by her gifts.
1 Doth not Wisdom discourse, And Understanding cause her voice to be heard? 2 On the top of the high places in the way, In the midst of the way, she has placed herself. 3 By the side of the gates, at the exit of the city, At the entrance to the doors, she calleth aloud. As הנּה points to that which is matter of fact, so הלא calls to a consideration of it (cf.
Pro 14:22); the question before the reader is doubly justified with reference to Pro 1:20. With חכמה, תבונה is interchanged, as e. g. , Pro 2:1-6; such names of wisdom are related to its principal name almost as אלהים, עליון, and the like, to יהוה. In describing the scene, the author, as usual, heaps up synonyms which touch one another without coming together.
Pro 8:4-9 Now begins the discourse. The exordium summons general attention to it with the emphasis of its absolute truth: 4 “To you, ye men, is my discourse addressed, And my call is to the children of men! 5 Apprehend, O ye simple ones, what wisdom is; And, ye fools what understanding is. 6 Hear, for I will speak princely things, And the opening of my lips is upright.
7 For my mouth uttereth truth, And a wicked thing is an abomination to my lips. 8 The utterances of my mouth are in rectitude, There is nothing crooked or perverse in them. 9 To the men of understanding they are all to the point, And plain to those who have attained knowledge. ” Hitzig rejects this section, Pro 8:4-12, as he does several others in chap. 8 and 9, as spurious.
But if this preamble, which reminds us of Elihu, is not according to every one’s taste, yet in respect of the circle of conception and thought, as well as of the varying development of certain fundamental thoughts, it is altogether after the manner of the poet. The terminology is one that is strange to us; the translation of it is therefore difficult; that which is given above strives at least not to be so bad as to bring discredit on the poet.
The tautology and flatness of Pro 8:4 disappears when one understands אישׁים and בּני אדם like the Attic ἄνδρες and ἄνθρωποι; vid . , under Isa 2:9; Isa 53:3 (where אישׁים, as here and Psa 141:4, is equivalent to בּני אישׁ, Psa 49:3; Psa 4:3). Wisdom turns herself with her discourses to high and low, to persons of standing and to the proletariat . The verbal clause 4a interchanges with a noun clause 4b, as frequently a preposition with its noun ( e.
g. , Pro 8:8) completes the whole predicate of a semistich (Fl.)